There are proposals to use the Human Tissue and Embryology Bill – which will be put before parliament in the next few months – to amend the Abortion Act and finally extend it to Northern Ireland.
In 1966, the year before abortion was legalised, around 4,000 women in Britain died trying to end a pregnancy that they did not want, could not afford, or could not cope with.
Today, women are working in unprecedented numbers, have broken their chains to the home, thrown out the traditional "feminine" roles, and have choices that our grandmothers couldn’t have imagined.
Lindsey German has written about and been active in struggles for women's rights for many years. She looks at the changing lives of women and explains what stimulated her to write her new book, Material Girls - women, men and work.
Following the women’s conference organised by the Respect coalition last weekend, Socialist Worker reports on key speeches and the debates that face our movement
Over 100 abortion rights campaigners gathered near Westminster last Saturday. It was the launch of a year of celebrations of 40 years since the 1967 Abortion Act, and the beginning of a campaign for a modern abortion law.
The referendum on abortion last Sunday was the second national vote on the issue. The question put was the same as in 1998 – "Do you agree with decriminalising abortion when requested by women, up to 10 weeks into pregnancy, and performed in an authorised clinic?"
